


Graffiti

by bananalestrange



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-28
Updated: 2014-05-28
Packaged: 2018-01-26 23:11:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1705976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananalestrange/pseuds/bananalestrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Storybrooke has a graffiti problem and Emma is determined to get to the bottom of it. She discovers something surprising along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Graffiti

Emma sighed loudly as she looked over her paperwork. Things had settled down in Storybrooke and with no villainous long-lost relatives popping up recently, her job as Sherriff had become practically dull lately. Most of her cases involved petty small-town crime and it was driving her crazy.

She looked over her notes on the most recent vandalization cases she had been working on and knew that she would have to take these over to Regina. The woman was insufferable when it came to reporting even the most petty crimes, and Emma frequently found herself in the Mayor’s office reporting her progress on the cases. Regina had finally forgiven Emma for bringing Marian to Storybrooke, but things were still occasionally tense between the two. Emma secretly enjoyed the bickering between them though, but tried to push those thoughts aside because there was no way Regina would ever feel the same.

Emma’s most recent town mystery involved the graffiti that had been popping up all over town. It varied in nature, from crude drawings to random images and it occasionally involved rude comments about people in town. A few months earlier the words “Captain Asshole” had been spray-painted on the side of Hook`s new boat, and the pirate had thrown such a tantrum that he`d ended up sailing away with Tinkerbell of all people. There had also been statements painted around town regarding the fact that Granny’s food was supposedly inferior, as well as questions about how “redeemed” Rumpelstilskin really was.

There had even been spray-painted statements about Emma herself. Some of them were insults like “Sherriff Swan is annoying”, but others had popped up recently that were strangely complimentary like “Emma Swan has nice hair and breasts” and “I wouldn’t mind being handcuffed by the Sherriff” which had been scrawled across the clock tower of all places. Emma couldn’t help but be mildly amused by these comments even if they were somewhat embarrassing.

At first Emma had believed the graffiti to be the doing of teenagers, possibly the Lost Boys, but when she investigated the matter further she’d discovered that all of the boys had alibis on the nights when the graffiti had appeared and Henry, who had finally become somewhat popular told her that no one at the local high school seemed to know anything about it. Emma had also begun to notice that the writing style was the same in every case, and she finally came to the conclusion that Storybrooke had a serial graffiti artist and she was determined to catch them.

She’d asked around and been informed by Ruby that this was not a recent trend and that even when everyone was cursed, graffiti still seemed to occasionally pop up around town. “Don’t tell Snow that I told you this, but someone wrote ‘Tramp’ on her car when she was having her affair with David” the waitress had whispered.

Though Emma was tired after her shift, she was determined to finally uncover the identity of the person responsible for the graffiti, and that night she found herself hunched behind a garbage bin in an area of town that was frequented by the graffiti artist. For awhile she saw nothing, but she eventually became aware of noises coming from just around the corner. She slowly moved toward the sound and was met with the sight of a hooded figure surrounded by cans of paint who appeared to be in the process of drawing a very large horse on the side of the building. Holding her breath and tiptoeing forward, Emma snuck up behind the person and yelled “Gotcha!” as she spun them around. She was completely unprepared however, for whose face peeked out from under the hood. “Regina!” she gasped, not quite believing her eyes. “You’re the one who’s been doing all this?”

Regina’s face went through a range of expressions, first anger and surprise at having been caught, followed by embarrassment, before finally settling on a look of guilt. “Yes” she whispered softly, not daring to make eye contact with the Sherriff. After a few moments of complete silence Regina began to explain. “It’s silly I know, but I’ve spent my whole life trying to uphold an image for people, first for my mother, then as the Queen, then Mayor. When I first came to this world I discovered that it was common for people to rebel by painting things in public places. It…it seemed like a silly, innocent way to let loose sometimes, to have some fun and try not to get caught. I just got a bit carried away.”

Emma paused while she tried to take in all of this information before smirking. “Do you really think my boobs and hair are nice?” she teased.

Regina blushed furiously and looked as though she wanted to disappear into the ground. “Emma I…” she began, “I just didn’t see any other way to express my feelings for you. We were so mad at each other and it’s not the same between us anymore, but after I was done being angry I realized that I like you, _really_ like you, and I feel like we never talk without arguing now. I know how absolutely juvenile some of those comments were, but I didn’t know how else to say them”.

“I don’t know what to say Regina; you’re the last person I ever thought would do something like this.  And why were you always making me report to you about all of this if you were the one behind it the whole time?” Emma wondered, still shocked that _Regina_ was behind this.

“It’s the only time I ever get to see you anymore” Regina whispered, looking more pitiful than Emma had ever seen her. With that Emma smiled and walked up to the other woman, lifted her chin up so Regina was looking at her, and placed a light kiss on her lips.

“Regina, you really suck at expressing your feelings” Emma commented, and Regina laughed softly. “I’m glad you expressed them some way though” she continued, “but next time lay off the graffiti and ask me on a date or something. I like you too but we both need to learn how to communicate better if we’re going to take a shot at this.”

 “Okay” Regina breathed out, looking relieved.

“Now” Emma began, “how about you tell me about this horse you’re drawing?” As Regina began a story about a horse she’d loved to ride when she was younger, Emma smiled softly to herself and thought that maybe this town wasn’t such a dull place after all.


End file.
